Guantanamo judge orders US general’s detention for contempt
WASHINGTON: A Guantanamo Bay military judge sentenced a US general to three weeks’ confinement after finding him in contempt of court Wednesday, the latest setback to hit the base’s much-criticised military tribunals.
The unprecedented action at Guantanamo’s military commissions coincidentally came the same day President Donald Trump said he was considering sending the suspect in Tuesday’s New York attack to the notorious detention centre.
The confinement of Brigadier General John Baker, who heads up the defence at Guantanamo, stems from the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole in 2000.
Baker had agreed to let Nashiri’s civilian defence team quit the case over a series of ethical conflicts and a lack of confidence that their privileged conversations were in fact confidential.
But military judge Air Force Colonel Vance Spath said they could not quit so ordered them to appear in person at the base or via video conference, the Miami Herald reported.
When Baker refused to return the team to the case or to testify, Spath found him in contempt.
Spath sentenced Baker to 21 days confinement to his quarters and ordered him to pay a US$1,000 fine.
“The judge has the obligation and power to enforce decorum in the courtroom,” military hearings spokesman Major Ben Sakrisson told AFP.
Citing a military rule, he added: “The military judge is responsible for ensuring that military commission proceedings are conducted in a fair and orderly manner, without unnecessary delay or waste of time or resources.”
Harvey Rishikof, who is a civilian lawyer and the so-called convening authority in the case, must still approve the sentence.
Baker, who has been in the Marine Corps for nearly three decades, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The military commissions at Guantanamo were started as a way to try non-US citizen ‘enemy combatants’ captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the aftermath of the US-led invasion in 2001. — AFP